In this tutorial you will learn how to obtain earned value performance information and how to examine schedule variance in real time.
Obtain earned value performance
After entering actual progress we want to look for earned value indicators on how well we are doing. We are going to change the view but instead of choosing a table from the menu we need to select “more tables” and select “Earned value” from our list. Now we get a sheet with our earned value information. We can compare the earned value with the planned value which measures following costs:
- Cost variance (CV)—the difference between a task’s estimated cost and its actual cost (the formula CV = Earned Value – Actual Cost).
- Schedule variance (SV)—the difference between the current progress and the scheduled progress of a task, in terms of cost (the formula SV = Planned Value – Earned Value).
- Estimate at completion (EAC) is the estimated total cost of a task or project, based on performance as of the status date.
- Budget at completion (BAC) shows an estimate of the total project cost.
- Variance at completion (VAC) shows the difference between the budget at completion (BAC) and the estimate at completion (EAC).
When we look at our project by January 18th we are suppose to spend roughly 20.500€, we have earned for actual work a little less 19.800€ but we spend over 27.800€ so we have a negative amount for both scheduled as cost variance. There is more then 700€ worth of work that is suppose to be done but that hasn’t been done and on the existing work we achieved we are 8000€ over budget.
Examine schedule variance in real time
According to our schedule variance we are behind in time calculated in money for 700€. When we want to look at the schedule variance in time we need to go to view > variance where we get a sheet with a view at our baseline start, actual start, start variation which shows us how much time we started ahead/late on our task and the finish variation which shows by how much time we finished early or late. When we look at our project we see the 4 workdays we started ahead of schedule but it took us a day longer then expected to finish.